Environmental Effects of Energy Production and Utilization

This chapter starts with a short section on the environment and ecosystems; continues with the success stories of environmental threat mitigation from acid raid, lead contamination, ozone depletion, and NOX emissions; examines the problems and possible consequences of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global warming, which have significant societal and political implications; and concludes with an exposition and the up-to-date progress for the solution of the problems of nuclear waste, thermal pollution, and freshwater use. The environmental threats of energy consumption may be neutralized by public policy, either national policy or concerted international treaties and protocols. Despite the efforts of the environmental community, there is not yet a comprehensive binding global agreement for the mitigation of the GHG emissions that cause global climate change, the principal environmental threat in the twenty-first century. The problem of nuclear waste is being addressed at several national and regional levels, and it appears that viable solutions for the long-term storage of radionuclides will become available in the near future. National policies and international collaboration has almost resolved the acid rain and the lead contamination problems, while the ozone depletion problem appears to be in check.